Declaring Independence

Today we celebrate Independence Day. It's interesting that July 4, 1776 is the day we end up commemorating. By this time the war with Britain had been going on for more than a year. It wouldn't be over for another 7 years. We wouldn't have the same official government that now presides for another 6 years after that. But we celebrate the day that we declared our independence. Not the day we were in fact independent, but the day we declared our independence. The real spirit of America is always about dreaming beyond our present circumstances. When the continental Congress voted to declare their independence were they actually free from British rule? No. When they wrote "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" were all people actually treated as equal? No. Because Independence Day is not about actually having achieved Independence but declaring Independence. It's about being unsatisfied with the current circumstances and looking with an eye to the future to a time and place where true independence could be achieved. It's about committing yourself to the long and arduous path to change, however painful and hopeless it may seem. Not all who live in this land have had the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not in 1776, or 1783, or 1864, or 1919, or 1941, or even in 2021. But we as a nation have declared and continued to declare that these rights are self evident and inalienable and worth fighting for, and as long as we keep on fighting, as long as we refuse to allow doubt and fear and hate and small mindedness and bickering and contempt to tarnish that shining American dream, then maybe we will all treat and love and respect each other as equals in fact and not just declaration.